The High Expression of CD276/HAVCR2 and CD163 is an Adverse Immune Subtype of Glioblastoma and is Closely Related to Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition

Abstract

Background Glioblastoma (GBM) is one of the most malignant tumors that can afflict the central nervous system. Previous studies have observed that there are individual differences in the treatment response of immune checkpoint inhibitors in glioblastoma. This study’s aim is to ascertain the factors that may affect the efficacy of immunosuppressant therapy. Methods The clinical data of this study were obtained from a public database. Then, the data was analyzed and processed by R software and corresponding R package. To verify the results of the analysis, information was gathered from 89 GBM patients in our hospital and thereafter the corresponding paraffin sections were stained and quantitatively analyzed by immunohistochemistry. Results From the analysis, it was observed that both CD276 and HAVCR2 were significantly overexpressed in GBM and could be associated with patient prognosis. The analysis of single cell RNA sequencing data and GBM data analysis found an immune subtype with poor prognosis. Further analysis found that the high expression of CD276, HAVCR2 and CD163 was closely related to epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and could affect the patient prognosis of PD-L1 high expression. GSVA enrichment analysis showed that CD276, HAVCR2 and CD163 might induce EMT by JAK-STAT3 signaling pathway, and RUNX1 and IKZF1 might be transcription factors that regulate CD276/HAVCR2 high expression. Conclusions We found an immune subtype with poor prognosis of GBM, the high expression of CD276, HAVCR2 and CD163 with EMT are closely related and may be one of the factors affecting the efficacy of Anti-PD-L1.

Identification of Potential Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor Targets in Gliomas via Bioinformatic Analyses

“…Recently, HAVCR2 overexpression was associated with T cell exhaustion in multiple cancers [ 55 ]. The high expression of CD276/HAVCR2 predicts an adverse GBM immune subtype and is closely related to the epithelial-mesenchymal transition [ 56 ]. These studies are consistent with our current findings, indicating that HAVCR2 is an important marker for gliomas and a potential target for cancer immunotherapy.…”